Jesse Jackson says public schools are good enough for all children. On
a recent airing of ABC's "This Week," he compared America's public
schools to Washington, DC tap water, reckoning that if the quality of the
city's water (and, by association, the schools) is good enough for some,
it is good enough for all.

To further his case against school vouchers, Jackson made clever statements
like, "Let's do heavy lifting and lift all of our children." Panelist
George Will countered that 30 Michigan school districts fail to graduate
two-thirds of their students and are considering a voucher initiative that
does not impact public school funding. Will asked, "What can you say
against that!?" Jackson quipped, "I think all schools should be
choice and all children chosen." That's smooth, but it didn't answer
Will's question.

Jackson remained firmly against school choice even though Will pointed
out that 72% of African-Americans favor vouchers and that over 1.5 million
"desperate parents" applied for only 40,000 privately-funded vouchers
offered by the Children's Scholarship Fund.

Jackson, who fancies himself as the nation's premier civil rights leader,
instead believes that "vouchers are a cop-out for a few, at the expense
of the masses." While offering no evidence that the government's educational
system would be hurt more by vouchers than it already is by incompetent
leadership, Jackson upped the ante by calling for a constitutional amendment
to "guarantee a quality education for all of America's children."
This begs the question: If the government can guarantee a quality education,
then why isn't it already providing it?

Using his popular sound-bite style of speaking, Jackson rattled off neat
one-liners that seemed more appropriate at a hip-hop freestyle gathering
than as an explanation of his unpopular position against school vouchers.
And while everyone would love to have a guaranteed quality education, Jackson
seems to have forgotten that we African-Americans can think for ourselves.

We can see our children being graduated from high school without a mastery
of the English language, while elementary schools experiment with new teaching
methods that downplay or discard proven phonics and grammar teaching methods.
We can see results of the great socialization experiment that isolates our
children on ill-supervised campuses. We can see our tax dollars funding
the same schools that fail our students, and see politicians continually
ask for more money while misusing what they've already confiscated.

And African-American parents, along with parents of all races, understand
the political movement seeking to force our children to not only recognize
the "sexual rights" of other students but accept virtually any
lifestyle as "normal." This movement simultaneously rejects the
laws of the God in which most of this country believes. Government-run public
schools have sidelined academic instruction in favor of propaganda and indoctrination.
Liberalism and socialism are the ideologies to which our children are constantly
subjected. As parents, we are aware.

We are also aware that it is OUR money being spent on these poor excuses
for schools, not the government's. We are aware that Jesse Jackson and others
wish to tell us what is good for our children, and that no amount of evidence
showing fervent African-American support for school vouchers will quell
their desires to promote government schools.

A million parents marching on Washington in protest of Jackson's proposed
constitutional amendment will not deter his liberal campaign from attempting
to wash over the needs of black Americans, leaving behind the residue of
government programs and taxpayer-funded policies. After all, it isn't his
money.

The strange thing about Jackson's desire to trump voucher programs with
a constitutional amendment is that the media isn't flinching. No one calls
him on his ignorance, informing him that the government has no money! The
money belongs to the people, though confiscated through taxes. This confiscation
of American income, profits and assets, in turn, funds the unconstitutional
liberal programs bankrupting our nation. Doesn't Jackson's steadfast opposition
sound just a little too much like a slave who has been given power on the
plantation - the one who runs to "ma'sa" to inform him that his
slaves are teaching their children to read without permission?

Clearly, Jackson stands squarely against black progress. He is abdicating
the leadership he so vainly wants.

It's time for Jesse Jackson to retire. Give him poverty-level Social
Security benefits that he won't be able to leave as inheritance to his grandbabies.
Let him sit home to greet those grandbabies as they return from public schools
that have failed to teach them even how to read, sabotaging their future.

Instead of calling for a constitutional amendment to trap children in
a failed educational system, let's call for Jesse Jackson to get out of
running our lives and get one of his own... for a change.

###

(Mike Green is an associate of Project 21 and the president of the Committee
to Restore America Foundation in San Diego, California. He can be reached
at [email protected].)

Note: New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their
author, and not necessarily those of Project 21.